


Going Under

by hollyandvice (hiasobi_writes)



Series: Holly's Round Eight H/C Bingo Card [25]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Coma, Post-Ascension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-17 12:37:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12365937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiasobi_writes/pseuds/hollyandvice
Summary: Hammond doesn't so much ground SG-1 as simply stop assigning them active missions as a team. Carter's got plenty to work on in the lab, Teal'c has enough on his hands trying to keep the rebel Jaffa from losing what little foothold they have, and Jack… well, Jack knows he's pretty much useless at the moment anyway.Daniel falls into a coma within weeks of returning to the SGC after Descending. Jack is Not Okay With This.





	Going Under

When it happens, it's a surprise to everyone involved. Ever Fraiser didn't see it coming. For his part, Jack's just grateful it happened while there were planetside rather than off-world. Any number of things could have made the situation worse if it had happened off-world, not the least of which would have been it happening in the middle of a Goa'uld ambush. So for his part, Jack's just grateful it happened planetside.

At least, that's what he keeps trying to tell himself. Knowing things could have been worse doesn't actually make him feel any better when Daniel's comatose in the infirmary, lying there looking for all the world like he really is dead. Again.

——

_When he opens his eyes, he remembers. He remembers her, and he remembers here, and he remembers the whole thing like he's still Ascended. And yet, he knows this isn't him any longer. Hasn't been for a long time. He can't seem to move or interact or understand at all. He can't choose where he goes or what he sees or what they do. All he can do is watch. The only blessing is that the patience of the Ascended seems to have returned to him too. He isn't as impatient as he was as a human, isn't even as impatient as he was when he himself was Ascended. The acceptance and the patience and the peace fill him and soothe him and complete him. It isn't what he wants, but it's what he has, so, for now, he'll take it._

——

Hammond doesn't so much ground SG-1 as simply stop assigning them active missions as a team. Carter's got plenty to work on in the lab, Teal'c has enough on his hands trying to keep the rebel Jaffa from losing what little foothold they have, and Jack… well, Jack knows he's pretty much useless at the moment anyway. So Hammond doesn't so much ground them as start giving Jack briefings to lead and paperwork to fill out. Jack tries to mind the way Hammond's coddling him, but he also can't seem to find it in himself to care. He doesn't want to leave Daniel's side, honestly, and if Hammond's willing to accommodate that, then far be it from Jack to complain. Isolation has always been his safe place when he's hurting, and Daniel had always been his reason not to isolate himself, right from the moment they'd first met all those years ago. Daniel had rejected Jack's isolation right off the bat, and Jack had never known how to hold him at bay. He'd let Daniel in, and though losing Daniel the first time when Jack had left him behind on Abydos hadn't been easy, every time since had only been more and more difficult. This time is no exception. For all that Jack wants to believe Fraiser's promises that they're doing all they can, he can't help but feel like he's just waiting for Daniel to come back and tell Jack he's Ascending again. Ascending and leaving them all behind. _Again_.

Jack turns to the next page of the report from '832 and stares at it just as unseeingly as the fifteen pages before it.

——

_Oma doesn't seem to see him. He doesn't mind. Especially not now that he knows for certain that she was the one that returned him to human form. He knows she had no choice, knows the Others left her no choice, and yet it doesn't lessen the ache of the knowledge that she had forsaken him in favor of their will and their way. He moves, unseen and unknown, through the ranks of the Other in a way he had never been permitted when he himself was Ascended. He feels almost like an extension of Oma, watching the way she moves, graceful and poised even with her outcast status among the Others. He listens as she speaks, watches as she moves, follows as she works the edges and outskirts to try to gauge support and dissent in the ranks of the Other. And through it all, she never turns to him, never notices him. So he follows, silent and attentive, and tries to relearn all that he once knew._

——

After a solid ten days with no change in Daniel's condition, Jack almost considers asking Hammond to put the team back on active duty, even without Daniel. But he knows the general well enough to know he won't reactivate them without a fourth, and taking on a new member would feel enough like giving up that Jack can't quite stomach it. So continues to take up his post at Daniel's bedside every morning, reports and memos in hand to read and pass on to Hammond as relevant or irrelevant to the base. He knows Hammond reads through them again just to make sure Jack isn't discarding relevant reports unnecessarily, and that this really is just the next stage in Hammond's coddling, but Jack isn't about to fight it. Not when something in his gut is telling him that leaving Daniel's side would be tantamount to letting him die again. So he stays, nodding at the infirmary staff with the ease and familiarity of the last ten days, and they nod back with the same. They're as accustomed to him as he is to them, and he knows they'll feel just as off-kilter as he knows he will when Daniel wakes up.

If Daniel wakes up.

Jack forces himself to shake the thought off. Daniel will wake up. He will. He always has, and this time will be no exception.

——

_He doesn't know when he started to drift further and further away from Oma. It isn't much at first, just pausing beside one of the Others that she has already written off, or getting caught up in a conversation she has excused herself from. The insistent tug that keeps him at her side always distracts him soon enough, though, and he never strays for long. But it goes on happening, more and more, and he finds himself learning and understanding more about the Others than he'd understood when he was Ascended. The structure, the hierarchy, the history. Even if it doesn't all quite make sense, even if he can sense that there's so much more going on than meets the eye, he takes it all in, letting the information seep into his soul rather than just into his mind, and prays that, whatever happens, the knowledge stays with him this time._

_It's why he doesn't notice when he's strayed too far from Oma for too long._

——

Jack's a little surprised his ass hasn't permanently welded itself to the seat at Daniel's bedside by the time day fifteen hits. He's certainly spent enough time there. It's why he knows as much about Daniel's condition as most of the nurses, and almost as much as Dr. Fraiser herself. It's why Teal'c and Carter generally ask him for updates instead of waiting for Fraiser if they happen to come in while she's busy.

It's why he's there the day Daniel starts going into convulsions on day sixteen, and why he's the one to sound the alarm to gather all relevant personnel to Daniel's bedside. It's why he's more than a little pissed that Fraiser kicks him out of the infirmary to treat Daniel.

It's why he's left, standing at the infirmary door, wondering for the first time since Daniel went down in the mess hall if this might actually be the end for his best friend.

——

_He feels the tug, trying to drag him back to Oma's side, but he resists, something in him absolutely certain that this conversation might be the one to save them all, might be the one that holds the key to the destruction of the Goa'uld. He doesn't dare hope, but maybe—_

_He feels a hand on his shoulder. Oma, her eyes boring into his. For an instant, he's certain that he must be imagining things, but the thought dissipates just as quickly._

_"You brought me here. You let me follow. Let me see what you do."_

_She nods._

_"It's why you never stayed any longer than a few moments. Because there's only so much I can know."_

_Another nod._

_"Oma, please—"_

_But she simply shakes her head, an apologetic smile on her face._

_"But if I knew—"_

_"Then they would have to destroy you. You and me both. There is only so much that I can show you. If you press for more, I will have to send you back sooner than I would have hoped."_

_His throat goes tight. "Back?"_

_"Back home. Where you belong."_

_He swallows, then offers her a nod. "How much more can you show me?"_

_Her face is soft and sad. "Not much. But enough. Enough."_

_He nods in return. "Then lead on."_

——

When Fraiser finally opens the door to the infirmary, Carter and Teal'c have joined Jack outside, all three of them waiting anxiously for news. Her face is puzzled, but tinged with relief. Jack relaxes immediately at the sight.

"He's fine for the moment," Fraiser says, and Carter and Teal'c mirror Jack's relaxed posture in unison. "Though I can't for the life of me figure out what triggered the convulsions, or what made them stop."

Jack frowns. "You didn't—?"

Fraiser shakes her head. "It wasn't my team, Colonel. Something stopped the convulsions, but I don't know what it was."

Jack stares over Fraiser's shoulder into the interior of the infirmary. Daniel is pale and his hair is limp, but he's alive, and that, for now, seems to be the best they're going to get.

For now, Jack will take it.

——

_He learns. He follows and he learns and he embeds the knowledge in his soul in the hopes that Oma isn't just showing him all this to try to get him to ascend again. There must be more to this than that, and maybe—_

_Maybe._

_Maybe is all he has, but maybe feels like enough for now. So he listens and he learns, and when Oma finally turns to him again, this time with a somber look on his face, he still isn't quite sure why she's brought him here, only that his information-gathering time is up. He takes a deep breath, perhaps his first since she brought him here, and relaxes into her careful touch._

_He may not know why he was brought here yet, but perhaps the day will come when he will._

——

Jack doesn't notice the shift when it happens. He hears the change in tempo on Daniel's heart monitor, but after a glance at the device assures him that Daniel's not in any danger, he goes back to his reports. It's been almost three weeks since Daniel went down, and Jack feels like he should be itching for action more than he is, but—

He feels the sensation of eyes on him a split second after his brain registers something wrong. His head snaps around immediately, but the feeling of being watched doesn't seem to be coming from behind. It seems to be—

Jack almost gives himself whiplash turning back to Daniel, and then almost faints in relief when he sees Daniel's tired blue eyes staring back at him.

"Daniel," Jack breathes, relief flooding him.

Daniel tries to speak, but frowns when no sound comes out. Jack scrambles to his feet, unintentionally alerting the entire infirmary to Daniel's lucidness, but he doesn't care, scrambling back with a cup half-filled with water and slips the straw past his lips. Daniel takes a few greedy swallows before releasing the straw and turning his eyes back to Jack. One of the nurses starts to run a few tests while they wait for Fraiser to get back, but Daniel only seems to have eyes for Jack. "H'w long?" he asks quietly.

"Almost three weeks," Jack tells him, trying to keep the pain out of his voice. "You okay, Danny-boy?"

Daniel's eyes flutter closed briefly, before he drags them back open to meet Jack's eyes head-on. "'M okay. Got a lot to tell you, though."

Jack frowns. "Tell me?"

Daniel nods. "Was with Oma. Showed me things. Taught me things. Need to…."

But Jack shushes him, brushing a hand over his head to soothe him. "You've got time, Daniel. Don't rush it."

A small frown creases Daniel's forehead. "Might forget."

Jack chuckles softly. "You've got a mind like a steel trap, Daniel. If it's in there, you'll find it again. I know you will."

Daniel just hums, nodding idly. As expected, Fraiser ushers Jack out of the infirmary the second she arrives, but Jack doesn't care. Daniel's awake again, and that's what matters. The rest will come in time, now that Daniel's back. The rest will come in time.

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'ed. Part of my Round Eight H/C Bingo Card. [Come hang with me on tumblr!](http://hollyandvice.tumblr.com/)


End file.
